Coloring given patterns, including the mandala patterns, is known to be an effective art therapy tool in evaluating various kinds of psychological or mental status or disorders.
Art therapists can obtain considerably accurate information on psychological status or disorders from a relatively meager reaction expressed in art. Analysis of pattern colorings provides art therapists with useful information for evaluating clients' psychological status or disorders including, but not limited to, feelings of insecurity, guilt, having nightmares, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and trauma.
In art therapy, art therapists observe shapes, symbols, lines, colors, etc. in an art piece. In a piece of work where given patterns are colored, color-related elements are the most important elements. Up to now, there has been no scheme in which a computer system with a knowledge base analyzes and rates color-related elements automatically. In addition, the performance-related elements such as completeness, accuracy and degree of concentration, which are believed to be critical to the effectiveness of evaluating coloring patterns as an art therapy tool, have not been considered. Completeness refers, for example, to the ratio of the area (the number of pixels) painted to the total area. Accuracy refers, for example, to the ratio of the area painted correctly within boundaries to the total area. Degree of concentration is estimated by a function of various formal elements such as the color-related elements (including, but not limited to, the number and list of colors used, the number of clusters, and length of edges), completeness and accuracy.
The levels of a client's psychological status or disorders are closely related to the elements in coloring patterns. However, up to now, there has been no suitable method of rating these elements objectively and numerically. Also, there has been no method of estimating the level of psychological status or disorders based on these rated elements.
Accordingly, there has been no expert system approach which can be used as a very useful approach for art therapy.